Gerald Nash (Louth, Labour) | Oireachtas source

As the Minister knows, I spoke at length on this issue on Second Stage and I provided him with the wisdom of my experience as a former secretarial assistant back in the day. It was my first full-time job in politics so I have seen this system evolve over the last 20 years and it has not always evolved in a positive fashion. It has been nothing other than regressive for secretarial assistants. Deputy Bríd Smith hit on something relevant in her contribution which chimes with some of the remarks I made on Second Stage when she said that a lot of this issue is gendered. If you look at the official description of a secretarial assistant's job it hearkens back to another day. It conjures up the notion that those who are doing this job are spending much of their time taking dictation, writing letters and answering the phone. We know their functions, roles and responsibilities are much more significant than that. They are highly skilled individuals who are sought after in the private sector. They should not have to pay a premium or accept a lower wage for the benefit, if I can describe it as that, of working in the political system. I said in my Second Stage remarks that there is almost an expectation out there that if you want to work in politics and get a start in politics, and if you are politically engaged and conscious and want to make a difference, you must enter the system at an extraordinarily low and derisory level of pay. That is never on and it shames us all. The reality of the role of a secretarial assistant has evolved significantly over the last five to ten years and there is a dichotomy between the functions, roles and responsibilities of a secretarial assistant working with a Senator and those of a secretarial assistant working with a Deputy.

The Minister probably feels under considerable pressure this afternoon. He is facing the serried ranks of the Opposition but as Deputy Shortall pointed out, all Government Deputies are probably of the view that this situation needs to change for secretarial assistants. I said in my Second Stage remarks that I believe the Minister believes it needs to change as well, given his experience of and commitment to public service and given the value he places on the work of public servants and everybody who works in the system. I have sympathy for the Minister because he is somewhat constrained in the level of engagement he and his officials can have. It is not appropriate, therefore, that we have running commentaries in this House on ongoing industrial relations negotiations. That can often be counterproductive for those who are involved in the negotiations but in this case there is an onus and a responsibility on us to do so because we have a responsibility to our staff.

The Minister will know that the amendment requires the Minister to present a report to the House on the conduct of the negotiations over the next six months. The Minister will also know from his experience that this is a device we use to try to draw attention to an issue. The Minister may feel he is not in a position to support the amendment itself but I ask him to articulate a political signal to those who are depending on us in this House to bring about change for them. I ask the Minister to indicate that he would have a preference that, for example, a comprehensive job evaluation proposition would be considered by negotiators. That would be a valuable contribution to this process. In so doing we could identify equivalent functions within the civil and public service. I made a proposal on the floor of this House the other day that the secretarial assistant grade may well be analogous to the executive officer higher scale where one would start at €35,000 per annum. You get to the top of that scale after six or seven increments rather than 18 as is the case with a secretarial assistant. That could be considered and changes could be made for secretarial assistants who are working with Senators. For example, they could be included on the parliamentary assistant pay scale rather than on the subsistence wages they are expected to live on.

Deputy Pringle referred earlier to the need for those of us working in these Houses, including Deputies and Senators, to be representative of this country in all its diversity. We need to represent that social, economic, cultural and ethnic diversity. This reminds me a little of the system of internships and traineeships where people who are networked and who know people get access to positions and can afford, perhaps with the support of wealthier parents and so on, to be able to get work in an environment where pay is low or where they are existing on subsistence wages. That should not be the case. These roles should not only be available to those who have wealth and can rely on the support of a family network to sustain them over a period of time. That would shame us all. These kinds of positions need to be available to everyone. Work always needs to pay and we need to start here. We need to get our house in order before we can tell others to get their respective houses in order.

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